Thoroughly enjoyed the 2018 Workshop at 9 Mile farm. Had a great time and got to match names to faces. Shared a lot of stories and got a lot of good ideas. The name & info list I was preparing has been completed. Check your email for the list of contacts and a link to the photos.

Good day to all, with a little help from admin I was actually able to get through the security hoops to join this forum!!! Thank you to admin for giving me a leg up My name is Keith, I live off grid in a forest in New England Australia. I lived without electricity for over 20 years, but now we have solar power. I am an 18th century living historian & experimental archaeologist, a primitive skills instructor retired; I only teach through videos & articles now. I am a writer & book author. I enjoy living on the land. I do have modern guns, but my preference for survival is muzzle-loaders & other primitive tools. I do NOT consider myself an expert at anything, there is always more to learn.Regards, Keith.

Hello Keith, and welcome aboard. It sounds like you have a good set of practical skills, and will fit right in here. Tell us about your solar power system when you get a chance. Anyone who's doing this off-grid is interesting to listen to. Also, has the ABC's discontinuation of shortwave service this past year affected things in your area?

I randomly decided to log back in, to see what has been happening (I just listened to Jack on the man over the wall) and wouldn't you know, its been 10 years to the day since I first joined. I haven't listened to a podcast for about 6 years, but with my growing maturity, I have started seeing signs that maybe it wouldn't hurt to see what some of the experts I used to listen to are saying, specifically a duck farmer that has had some good ideas in the past.

So here I am, back again and starting from day one of the podcasts. Any recommended ones or should I really just burn through them all. I've got the time....mostly.

Glad you're here, CMBS. I'd just recommend that you read the program notes and see if the topics are of interest to you... I'm not so interested in the call-in shows or the expert council shows... but those shows are very popular with a lot of folks, so... ymmv.

Looks like this is the new guy thread. :-) Hi, I'm Dan or GP or Gnoticpasta.. whichever works. Live in SW Idaho, been into the outdoors and outdoor survival skills for a long long time (used to be tied into Ron Hood back when he was still alive if any of you knew him) Retired Army, (NG), Ham operator, backpacker, 4x4er and a bunch of other hobbies. Ran across this podcast several years ago, and didn't realize their was a forum.. re-found it again when i started reading 299 Days this past week.

Well lets see here.. food stash.. not as much as i'd like, but i have quite a bit of backpacking food (since i backpack.. it serves dual purpose) as well as a variety of 5 gallon buckets with a mix of winter wheat, beans and rice.. still working on making it a better stash of grub.. . one of those never ending things. My wife is persian, so she's good with me having lots of rice. :-D I'm a firearms guy, so i have quite a few pew pews.. reloading equipment, ect. I've got a couple different sets of radio gear. some portable, some not so much. Play around with SOTA (summit on the air) with my lighter ham gear. Life long martial artist, wide variety of edged weapons (my Pops was a knife maker) backyard mechanic. Have an IH Scout that ive had for the past 19 years, as well as some modern rigs. still love my scout though. I spend as much free time as i can out in the desert and woods here in Idaho.

Danilb74 here. My hubby and I hail from Eastern Washington, where we are re-steading the family's 130yo desert ranch. We have horses, goats, ducks, chix and geese, besides the LGDs and ubiquitous barn cats. We host two cattle operations, run a 1-acre garden and orchard, and are trying to remodel/tear down/rebuild about a dozen houses and outbuildings. We currently have two solar water systems. We've been prepper-minded all our lives, but are getting more detailed in how that happens on a day-to-day basis. I've been listening to Jack for about four months now; my hubby is just getting started with that, and our adult daughter is listening to the specific episodes I'm sending to her and her friends. Looking forward to learning more here on the forums!

Yep. Pretty basic pump setup with a solar panel each and 100' vertical pull. Have an ancient hand-dug well with a pump in it, feeding up into IBC totes, then down through a gravity feed into the gardens and greenhouse. The hope is to have a similar system on the domestic well as a backup.This is honestly far easier than trying to do a modern irrigation system! The other system backs up the first, running from the pets' water trough to the greenhouse, for that period of time before we can wade through the spring mud to the bigger system!

There is something magical about using the hot sun to pump you some cool water. Welcome aboard, danilb74.

gnotic, you mentioned lightweight ham gear and SOTA. What are you using there? And though I didn't say it earlier, welcome aboard to you too.

Oh a long sordid story indeed. Not as light as i want it to be, but working in that direction. When i first started playing around with SOTA, i was using my Yaseu VX-7R, a home made antenna (Slim Jim J-pole) and 22w goal zero solar panels to keep my battery alive. If you're a ham, you know the limitations on UHF/VHF, but i was still able to hit some repeaters 70-80 miles away and make a few contacts. (w/ 5watts) That was fine for mountain tops that put me line of sight with repeaters. But, most of my backpacking is deeper in the wilderness areas, so started exploring the HF side of things. I have a Yaseu 857D, which is a pretty amazing radio. I've made it portable, but it's not really super light weight... and i can't use full power because it drains the battery very quick. Using that in conjunction w/ a buddi-stick does pretty well, but with the weight and power consumption, it recently became my base radio. I'm currently saving money to purchase something much lighter for low power qrp. I'd love to get the Electracraft K2, but it's spendy, so looking at some of the cheaper chinese stuff. The Xiegu X5105 has gotten a lot of really good reviews compared to similar products. Also looking at the LD-11 and LD-5 from LNR Precision. I plan on picking up one of those in the next month or so.. so stand by for a review! Here's a picture of my 857 in it's portable setup. slips into the top of my backpack.

What battery are you running in that? I know PZ was partnering with a company that sold a matching sealed lead-acid batt a few years ago. Some of the newer Bioenno LiFePO4 batts are crazy-light and can drive an 857 at full power. Exciting times for batteries and lightweight systems.

Also, before you spend $$$ on QRP, look over at the QRP thread at ham board here. Much to love and to hate about those little jewels.

I'd have to look up what battery it is again. but it is the one recommended a few years ago by PZ. I love it, but, it's not really light. Weighs about 8.4lbs. Not extremely heavy, but for backpacking and mountain climbing, it's considerably heavier than i'd like considering other things i would be carrying. Works great off the mountain bike, or short hikes out in the desert though. "full power" off this battery is only 35 watts, and it doesn't last long. The radio will do 100 watts, but just not with this battery. When i run it portable, i'm pretty much only pushing 5 watts anyhow..mind as well go with something lighter that outputs the same. Will take a look at the Bioenno batteries, as well as the QRP threads. Definitely pros-cons to both sides of it..

I'd have to look up what battery it is again. but it is the one recommended a few years ago by PZ. I love it, but, it's not really light. Weighs about 8.4lbs. ... "full power" off this battery is only 35 watts, and it doesn't last long. The radio will do 100 watts, but just not with this battery.

How about full 100 watts for ~3 hours, weighing 3.3 lbs? LiFePO4 has revolutionized portable in the last 3 years. It's just stunning, even over what was out there in 2014.

But that's for another thread. Welcome (again) to the forum, GP, danilb, and anyone else I've missed. Time to get on with New Year's. See y'all in 2019!

Hello there! Glad I stumbled on this forum. My name is Sylvia and I left the city about 6 months ago and moved solo to my 30 acres in the Ozarks of Arkansas where I have a well, small cabin, a barn, couple goats, chickens, two dogs and a few barn cats. I'm prepping my garden plot and also have a 40hp tractor I'm getting handy with. I am a HAM radio operator and obtained my advanced licence about 20 years ago when they required code. I haven't set up my station yet but that will come soon. I'm doing this all alone after losing my life partner and while it's not always easy, it's an adventure and that is what life is about. I couldn't in good conscience remain in the city and felt confined and compressed. Look forward to what I'm sure is a lot of good information and encouragement in the forum!

Well where to start. Some of y'all may remember me from years ago. I'm redoing the intro thread because I am not the man I was years ago. I'll be 31 years old in February and when I started posting here it was almost a decade ago. I started listening to jack on like episode 6(ish?) and I'm in episode 100. I'm a union electrician still. I have a 3 year old son. I'm about to be finished up with a divorce. 12 years together. Pretty crazy.

We sold our house in October as stated in our divorce and walked away with equity for each of us. I have a small apartment but plan on buying a few acres in a year or at the beginning of 2020. I'll put a small trailer on it and build a home for myself and my son.

I have no student loans or credit card debt. I have food storage and a great career. I've been apart of the IBEW for 9 years now. I've been a Journeyman wireman for 4 years.

I quit smoking and drinking. I became active again in church (latterday saints) and actually am the young men's president for our small branch. I'm only over 4 young men but I can see the influence and example I have on them and it feels nice to be able to be a positive example to them.

I plan on doing small acreage homesteading. Chickens rabbits garden and trees. Rain catchment and adequate drainage.....we don't need swales in the wetlands of southeast Louisiana. Eventually I'll find that woman I'm ment for and she's ment for me. I'm in no hurry and am just living my life to be the best example for my son.